Clamshell bucket lips



Nov. 12, 1968 J, GOODMAN, JR 3,410,593

CLAMSHELL BUCKET LIPS Filed June 13, 1966 INVENTOR Edward J. Goodman J1:

United States 3,410,593 CLAMSHELL BUCKET LHPS Edward J. Goodman, Jr., Baltimore, Md., assignor to Bethlehem Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed June 13, 1966, Ser. No. 557,032 2 Claims. (Cl. 294-70) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention A cleanup grab bucket of the type referred to is generally used to remove ore, coal, or other material from a ship or barge after the greater part of the cargo has been removed by other means. In a typical bucket of this type, as shown in expired US. Patent No. 2,284,390 granted on May 26, 1942 to E. L. Harrington, the entire disclosure of which is to be regarded as incorporated by reference hereinto, the lips of my invention are preferably attached as by welding or riveting to the inner ends of the scoops on the hinge frames of the patent.

A cleanup bucket of the type shown in the abovecited Harrington patent is normally provided with digging lips which provide a simple butt type joint at the point of closure. A full butt joint is fairly adequate for transporting soft or crushed lumpiron ores, such as were customarily charged to blast furnaces at the time when such buckets were first used, but I have found that it is far from snfiiciently tight or leakproof to be used in an efiicient manner to carry iron ore pellets, which are generally spherical averaging slightly under one inch in diameter, and are also hard and abrasive. From a typical pair of butt-joint lips, I have found that as much as five percent of the transported pellets were being dropped. This condition created major cleanup and safety hazards on ships decks, unloaders, catwalks, and railroad tracks and trestles in a storage yard. In addition, the contacting edges of the butt lips in prior use tended to wear out quickly, and required constant maintenance and frequent replacement.

Summary of the invention The lips which constitute my invention are simple to make by casting, are easily welded into place on the bucket scoops, will seal tightly together when closed, and have a long operating life with little cost for maintenance.

It is a principal object of my invention to provide overlapping lips which will enable a standard clamshell grab bucket to convey large tonnages of iron ore pellets without dropping any substantial quantity of pellets.

Other objects, purposes and advantages of my invention will appear hereinafter in the specification, claims and drawings of this application.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the lower portion of a clamshell bucket showing the bucket lips in an overlapped or closed position;

FIG. 2 is an interior sectional view of one half of a bucket lip;

FIG. 3 is a similar view, taken on the line 33 of FIG. 5, of a half of a mating bucket lip;

FIG. 4 is an interior sectional view of a closed pair of bucket lips of the types shown in FIGS. 2 and 3;

3,410,593 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a pair of bucket lip halves welded together to form one U-shaped body;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the line 66 of FIG. 4 showing one side of a pair of closed bucket lips in interlocked relation.

In accordance with my invention, a pair of suspended power-driven hinged opposite grab frames (not shown) have each mounted on the lower ends thereof a pair of scoops 13 and 14. Said scoops 13 and 14 may be conventionally fabricated of welded steel plates and angles, as in the above-mentioned Harrington Patent 2,284,390. In the case of an existing bucket, the lips shown in the patent must, of course, be removed to enable the lips 15 and 16 of my invention to be attached, preferably by welding, in place thereof. For a new bucket, my lips 15 and 16 may be attached similarly, to serve as its original lips.

Each of said lips 15 or 16 is formed as a substantially U-shaped body 17 of manganese or like alloy steel. It is plain that each lip may be made in one piece if desired, but for the sake of convenience in casting and ease of attachment to the scoops it is preferably cast in two L- shaped sections 15a and 15b (or 16a and 16b) of substantial thickness, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the bottom legs of which are welded together as at (see FIG 5) on assembly with the respective scoops.

The essential feature of this invention is in the conformations of the integral mating or sealing edges which overlap through being reversely shaped and positioned on the respective lips. The lip 15 is provided with a projecting wide inner flange or tongue 18 preferably extending forwardly approximately four (4) inches in maximum length and having a sloping outer surface 19 and an outer recess or groove 20. The other lip 16 is provided with a projecting outer flange or tongue 21 of corresponding size and having a sloping inner surface 22 and an inner recess or groove 23. As the bulk of the pellets will be held in the bottom of the buckets, the tongue and groove portions of each lip may taper gradually and merge into the body 17 of said lip at its upper end, as shown. In this manner the facing edges of both lips are supplied with interfitting extended straight portions which do not interfere with the digging and closing functions of the lips, but which effectively prevent the loss of pellets when the lips of the bucket are closed.

In all other respects, the body 17 of each of the lips may be formed as in the prior art, as represented in the Harrington Patent 2,284,390, but can obviously be further modified to fit particular sizes and types of clamshell type buckets, or adapted to convey other types of materials besides ore pellets, such as limestone or sinter.

I claim:

1. A pair of lips for a clamshell bucket, the outer edge of one lip having an outer grooved portion and an inner tongue portion, and the other lip having an inner grooved portion and an outer tongue portion to mate when the lips are closed together.

2. In a pair of lips as claimed in claim 1, each of said lips being formed of two equal parts joined together endwise on the center line of the lips.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,314,395 3/1943 Harrington 37-186 FOREIGN PATENTS 64,031 8/ 1934 Netherlands.

EVON C. BLUNK, Primary Examiner. R. D. GUIOD, Assistant Examiner. 

